Wolfgang Hampel. Founder of Betty MacDonald Fan Club and Betty MacDonald Society for Betty MacDonald Fans all over the world.
Wolfgang Hampel interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and other famous writers and artists.
Wolfgang Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty MacDonald Interviews are very popular all over the world.
Wolfgang Hampel is also famous for his satirical poems and stories.

Artist and author Darsie Beck gave us the
permission to share a special gift with you, his childhood memories of
Vashon Island.It's beautifully written and a real treasure.

Childhood memories of Vashon Island 1943-53Copyright by Darsie Beck All rights reserved I've always been fascinated by the ferry boats that serve the island
and Olympic Peninsula communities of Puget Sound. I feel particularly
fortunate to have spent my first ten years and the last thirty years
here on Vashon Island and the in between years living in water front
homes near the Fauntleroy ferry dock and on the north end of Mercer
Island near the old ferry landing that once served that island
community.I have many fond memories of the ferry boats but one in particular
remains as clear to me today as when it occurred many years ago.At the time I was born, my parents lived with my grandparents in a
small house on Judkins street just east of 23rd, a few blocks south of
the Lake Washington floating bridge tunnels. This area, at the time, was
the northern most end of what was called, "Garlic Gulch", the original
Italian community in Seattle. With a new baby in the house things got
pretty crowded and before long my parents moved to Vashon Island where
they purchased their first home on the bluff above Dolphin Point on the
north end of the island. My mother's sister Betty MacDonald, her husband
Don and her two daughters Anne and Joan had moved to the island a
couple years before prompting my parents to follow their lead to this
island community.In the 1940's as now, we reached the island by ferry boat. I can't
tell you what that first ferry ride was like in the fall of 1943 or
which boat we rode on but I do know, the boats were privately operated
by Puget Sound Navigation (PSN), doing business as the Black Ball Line.Black Ball provided service between Vashon Island, Harper (on the
Olympic Peninsula) and Fauntleroy (West Seattle). During the 1940's the
wooden ferries Vashon and Kehloken and the steel electric Quinault saw
regular service on this run. The Quinault carried 100 cars compared to
the 45 car capacity of the smaller wooden ferries and was considered a
super ferry at the time. Most of the ferries flying the Black Ball
burgee were former San Francisco Bay boats purchased by PSN after the
completion of the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges.In early 1948, a proposed rate increase by PSN resulted in Vashon
Island suspending its service contract with Black Ball. Undeterred by
Vashon's action, Black Ball continued service between Harper and
Fauntleroy and to Vashon on an "as needed only" basis. With the help of
sympathetic state and local government agencies Vashon began developing
its own ferry service utilizing former Lake Washington and Tacoma boats
out of service since the opening of the Lake Washington floating bridge
and the Tacoma Narrows bridge. The Lincoln, Washington, City of Tacoma
and Crosline became the backbone of the new fleet.My first ferry boat recollection is from the summer of 1948. I was
five years old, my mother was pregnant with my sister, and we were
sitting in the family car on the Vashon ferry dock on a very foggy July
morning waiting for the boat to Fauntleroy to take my mother to the
hospital.The fog had created a stillness over the dock broken every few
minutes by the sounding of fog horns and the occasional car driving on
and off the wood planked ferry dock. Soon I heard the sound of an
approaching ferry, its engines reversing, its prop wash splashing
noisily between the pilings, the shrill screech of the ferries wood side
rails rubbing against creosote dolphins and apron wing walls as the
boat nudged itself into the slip. Chains clattered as deck hands removed
car barriers in preparation of off loading. I don't remember which of
the old ferries landed at the Vashon dock that foggy morning but I do
remember, once our car was loaded onto the boat, sitting on the car
deck, looking out the port into the fog when suddenly out of the mist a
large ferry appeared. Its propellers furiously reversing, deck hands and
passengers on both boats bracing for an impending collision. My eyes
grew big and my body grew tense as the huge ferry cleared the fog
revealing her black hull, white superstructure and the black ball
painted near the top of her red stack. It was the Quinault, Puget
Sound's first super ferry heading directly for our boat. The prop wash
of the huge ferry was buffeting the side of our boat, causing it to rock
back and forth in its slip. The Quinault was now within a car's length
of our boat when its forward motion finally came to rest and her
reversing action began to move the boat out of harms way. As stealthy as
she had appeared, she now disappeared back into the fog sending a
collective and audible sigh of relief through passengers and crew of
both boats.The Quinault, now considered a medium sized boat compared to today's
super ferries, still ply's the waters of Puget Sound and still holds a
place in my childhood memories as the most enormous boat ever seen by a
five year old.

About Me

Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and friends. His Interviews have been published on CD and DVD by Betty MacDonald Fan Club. If you are interested in the Betty MacDonald Biography or the Betty MacDonald Interviews send us a mail, please.
Several original Interviews with Betty MacDonald are available.
We are also organizing international Betty MacDonald Fan Club Events for example, Betty MacDonald Fan Club Eurovision Song Contest Meetings in Oslo and Düsseldorf, Royal Wedding Betty MacDonald Fan Club Event in Stockholm and Betty MacDonald Fan Club Fifa Worldcup Conferences in South Africa and Germany.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members are Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald's nephew, artist and writer Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald fans and beloved authors and artists Gwen Grant, Letizia Mancino, Perry Woodfin, Traci Tyne Hilton, Tatjana Geßler, music producer Bernd Kunze, musician Thomas Bödigheimer, translater Mary Holmes and Mr. Tigerli.